Garment hanger bar

ABSTRACT

A garment hanger bar wherein a horizontal member has a vertical wall and a horizontal flange with a transverse slot in the flange and vertical wall and an enlarged opening communicating with the wall portion of the slot so that the bar can support clothes hangers provided with stems having opposed parallel faces thereon with a protrusion on at least one face. The hanger bar slot is narrow and only slightly greater in width than the thickness between the opposed faces of the hanger stem. The hanger bar may be in the form of an accessory which can be mounted on existing hanger bars to adapt an existing hanger bar to receive another type of clothes hanger stem.

United States Patent Carl E. Gingher 304-328 Depot St., Scranton, Pa. 18509 [21 Appl. No. 675,666

[22] Filed Oct. 16, 1967 145] Patented Nov. 16, 1971 [72] Inventor 54 I GARMENT HANGER BAR 13 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

I52] U.S.Cl 211/123,

211/113, 248/300, 248/317 [51 Int. Cl A47f 7/24 [50] Field of Search 211/123,

135,90,113,119.12,94;248/223, 224, 309, 310, 3l2,3l4,300,317;108/29,30;24/1l6.1,201.1;

Primary Examiner- Roy D. Frazier Atlorney- Edmund M. .laskiewicz ABSTRACT: A garment hanger bar wherein a horizontal member has a vertical wall and a horizontal flange with a transverse slot in the flange and vertical wall and an enlarged opening communicating with the wall portion of the slot so that the bar can support clothes hangers provided with stems having opposed parallel faces thereon with a protrusion on at least one face. The hanger bar slot is narrow and only slightly greater in width than the thickness between the opposed faces of the hanger stem. The hanger bar may be in the form of an accessory which can be mounted on existing hanger bars to adapt an existing hanger bar to receive another type of clothes hanger stem.

PATENTEUuuv 1s |97I 3. 620 376 sum 1 or 2 INVENTOR CARL E. GINGHER WMWQ PATENTEDunv 16 I97! SHEU 2 0F 2 R E WH m S E L R A C GARMENT HANGER BAR The present invention relates to a garment hanger bar upon which a plurality of clothes hangers may be supported, more particularly, to a garment hanger bar which can accommodate a particular from of clothes hanger stem and other forms of clothes hanger stems including the conventional hook.

Many types of garments and clothing are hung upon clothes hangers when not in use in order to preserve their shape and appearance. A common form of clothes hanger has a shoulder bar which is shaped to support a garment such as a jacket or a coat with a hook upstanding from the bar. The hook is then suspended from a horizontally extending hanger bar in the clothing storage area. While the horizontal rod is a conventional form of hanger bar, other forms of hanger bars have been employed for supporting clothes hangers hooks on their stems. Another form of hanger bar comprises a vertical plate having spaced openings therein with the hanger hooks being inserted into the openings for suspending the hangers.

Other forms of hanger bars and suspension devices have been proposed to accommodate only a particular form of hanger stem and not to accommodate the conventional hanger hook. Thus it was not possible to interchange the clothes hangers between the different types of hanger bars.

In addition, operators of hotels, motels, restaurants, and other places frequented by large numbers of people wish to have specialized fonns of hanger stems so that the people would not remove the hangers from the premises. Since most persons use clothes hangers with hooks, the hangers with specialized stems could not be used by these people and, accordingly, were not removed. However, when a person who had his clothes on hangers with conventional hooks arrived in a hotel having specialized forms of hanger supports he was inevitably irritated and inconvenienced at not being not able to suspend his hangers from the hanger bars found in the hotel. It was thus necessary for him to remove his clothing from his own hangers and transfer the clothing onto the hotel hangers.

In other places where it would not be expected people would bring clothing, such as in offices, checkrooms, and other places of public assembly, it was desired to employ specialized forms of hanger stems which could be supported only from correspondingly shaped hanger bars.

While a wide variety of hanger stems such as ball, T-stem and other forms have been devised for use with correspondingly shaped hanger bars, none of these specialized forms of stems and hanger bars have been particularly satisfactory. Most of the structures are too complicated and cumbersome to be adapted for every-day use or are so constructed that it is difficult to place or remove hangers therefrom.

It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved hanger bar structure for supporting clothes hangers.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a hanger bar particularly adapted for supporting a clothes hanger having a striplike stem with a protrusion thereon.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a hanger bar for supporting a wide variety of forms of hanger stems.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an accessory for adapting a hanger bar to support other forms of hanger stems and to increase or decrease the capacity of the hanger bar.

The objects of the present invention are attained and the disadvantages of the prior art are avoided by the garment hanger bar disclosed as the present invention. This hanger bar may comprise a substantially horizontally disposed angle member having a vertical wall with a horizontal flange extending from the lower edge thereof. There is a slot in the vertical wall which continues into the horizontal flange. The vertical portion of the slot is provided with an enlarged opening which may be at the upper end of the slot or intermediate the ends of the vertical slot portion. Inclined surfaces are provided in the vertical wall which incline inwardly toward the vertical slot to form a guiding means for the insertion of a garment hanger stem into the opening and slot. The slot arrangement is particularly adapted for receiving and supporting a hanger stem comprising opposed parallel faces with a protrusion on at least one of the faces. The width of the slot is only slightly greater than the thickness of the stem between the opposed faces.

Various shapes and arrangements of the enlarged openings may be provided depending upon the form of the hanger stem which is intended to be supported upon the hanger bar. One form of opening may be V-shapedwith the apex being at the upper end of the vertical slot portion.

The hanger bar as disclosed herein may be mounted on a clothes rack of the type which is supported on the floor or on a wall rack consisting of a plurality of shelves which are mounted on a wall. The hanger bar is generally mounted beneath the lowermost of the shelves.

An attachment or accessory is provided whereby a hanger bar intended for supporting one type of hanger stem maybe adapted to support another type of hanger stem. The accessory comprises an elongated plate which is detachably mounted upon the hanger bar. The plate is provided with openings or other supporting devices which conform to the structures of the hanger stems which are to be supported therefrom.

By using such an adapter bar or accessory, the number of clothes hangers which a rack can accommodate may be either increased or decreased depending upon the number of openings or supporting devices in the accessory.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent upon references to the accompanying description when taken in conjunction with the following drawings wherein;

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a rack-shelf section provided with a garment hanger bar according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view in enlarged scale of a portion of the hanger bar shown in FIG. I and also showing a hanger stem supported therein;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view from the rear of the portion of the hanger bar shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an end elevational view of the garment hanger bar portion of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to that of FIG. 2 but showing a modification in the hanger bar opening;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 3 and showing the modification illustrated in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of an accessory attached to a hanger bar to adapt a hanger bar for the accommodation of other types of hanger stems;

FIG. 8 is an end elevational view of the structure shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a front elevational view with a slight perspective showing a modification of the hanger bar portion of FIG. 2 and a correspondingly shaped hanger stem; and

FIG. 10 is a perspective view from the front of a portion of a modification of a hanger bar having a substantially channelshaped section.

Proceeding next to the drawings wherein like reference symbols indicate the same parts throughout the various views a specific embodiment and modifications of the present invention will be described in detail.

In FIG. 1 there is illustrated a shelf section indicated generally at 10 for a rack with the section comprising shelves l1, l2, and 13. The shelves are suitably interconnected at their rear corners by vertical braces 14 and the lowermost shelf 11 is provided with a hanger bar 15 which is suitably fastened to the undersurface thereof. Side bars 16 extending from the hanger bar 15 to the rear vertical braces 14 may also be provided.

The shelf section is of the type which may be mounted directly onto the wall to function as a wall rack or may be mounted on a vertical upright having a base adapted for positioning on the floor. The resulting rack will be a clothes rack having a shelf secton for hats and other articles of clothing with coats and jackets being supported on a clothes hanger l7 carried in the hanger bar 15 as shown in FIG. 1.

As may be more clearly illustrated in FIGS. 2-4, the hanger bar comprises an angle member indicated generally at 18 and having a vertical wall 19 and a horizontal flange 20 which may be inclined, extending rearwardly from the lower edge thereof. The upper edge of the vertical wall 19 may be provided with a flange 21 which may be attached to the underside of a shelf by spot welding or other suitable fastener means.

The front wall 19 is provided with a vertical slot 22 which extends upwardly from the lower or flange edge of the front wall and continues into the horizontal flange to form a horizontal slot portion 23. The slot 22 is provided with one or more enlarged openings 24 which are positioned and shaped to receive the hemispherical protuberances 25 provided on the opposed parallel faces 26 of a hanger stem 27.

To facilitate and to guide the insertion of a clothes hanger stem into the slot 22 and an opening 24, there are provided a plurality of inclined surfaces 28 which incline inwardly toward the slot 22 as may be seen in FIGS. 2-4. Thus the slot 22 is actually set back from the front face of vertical wall I9 and is actually positioned at the bottom of an indentation or recess formed at the intersection of the inclined surfaces 28.

It will be noted that the width of the slot 22 is only slightly greater than the thickness of the hanger stem 27. In addition, the enlargements 24 are shaped to closely conform to the hemispherical protrusions 25 on the hanger so that these protrusions are received in the enlarged openings with only a very slight clearance. As a result of this structure, the use of this hanger bar for supporting other forms of hanger stems is prevented.

While the hanger stem 27 is shown with a protrusion 25 on each of the opposed faces, it is pointed out that a protrusion may be formed on only one face. In this event, there would only be an enlarged opening 24 on that corresponding side of the vertical groove 22 so as to accommodate the protrusion 25. In addition, the enlarged openings may be spaced at different distances from the horizontal flange such as illustrated at 24' and 24" in FIG. 9. Accordingly, the hanger stem 27 would similarly be provided with protrusions 25' and 25" which are spaced to conform to the locations of enlarged openings 24' and 24". Thus the spacing, arrangement, size and shape of the enlarged openings 24 would function as a key in that only those particular hangers having correspondingly positioned protrusions on their stems could be accommodated. This would eliminate the need of a color scheme to identify hangers and their corresponding hanger bars and would prevent the carrying away of hangers to a different area where the hanger bar would be shaped to accommodate different arrangements of hanger stem protrusions.

In FIGS. and 6 there is shown a modifications of the hanger bar as described above with a somewhat differently shaped stem entry opening so that the conventional hook hanger may be accommodated. In this modification, the vertical slot 22' is relatively short and communicates with a V- shaped enlarged opening 30. The peripheral edges of the V- shaped opening 30 are curved inwardly as indicated at 31 to facilitate the entry of hanger stems therein. The remainder of the structure is similar to that as described above. The vertical and horizontal slots are again constructed to be relatively narrow and of a width sufficient to closely accommodate the flattened hanger stem 27 as shown in FIG. 2. However, when a rack is provided with the hanger bar of FIGS. 5 and 6, clothes hangers provided with the conventional hook stem may be supported therefrom. The V-shaped opening 30 would readily receive such hook stems.

The shelf section I0 illustrated in FIG. I may be provided with another form of hanger bar in which there is formed a plurality of spaced openings for receiving the hanger hooks of a conventional clothes hanger. Such a hanger bar is shown at 40 in FIGS. 7 and 8 and is attached to the underside of a shelf 41. In order to adapt the hanger bar 40 to accommodate the flattened hanger stems as illustrated in FIG. 2, an accessory in the form of an adapter may be employed. Such an accessory is indicated generally at 42 in FIG. 7 and comprises an elongated plate 43 which is substantially the same length as the hanger bar 40. The plate 43 is slightly wider than the hanger bar so that the hanger openings 44 therein will be positioned below hanger bar 40. The openings 44 may be of the form as described above and illustrated in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5.

The plate 43 may be provided with an upper series of openings 45 and a lower series of openings 46 with the lower series in this example corresponding with the hanger openings 47 in hanger bar 40. The upper series of openings 45 would correspond to the openings in some other form of hanger bar. It is to be borne in mind that the openings 45 and 46 may be positioned so as to correspond with the openings in any particular form of hanger bar. A suitable fastener such as a nut and bolt shown at 48 in FIGS. 7 and 8 is then passed through the registering openings to attach the adapter to the hange bar.

The adapter bar 42 may also be employed to increase or decrease the capacity of an existing hanger bar. For example, where a hanger bar is provided with six hanger openings such as illustrated in FIG. 7, the capacity may be increased by providing an adapter having a greater number of openings 44 such as also illustrated in FIG. 7.

Where it is desired to having garments which are heavier or more bulky than usual, the capacity of the hanger bar could be decreased by attaching to the bar an adapter such as shown in FIG. 7 but having a fewer number of hanger openings.

The hanger bar and accessory as described above may be made of the same material as the rack illustrated in FIG. I which is a sheet steel. However, other suitable materials such as various forms of synthetic plastics may be employed.

As illustrated in FIG. 8, the horizontal flange of the hanger bar of the present invention is preferably inclined upwardly at an angle ranging from 25 to about 37 15. By including the horizontal flange upwardly, the protrusions on the hanger stem will be seated against the rear surface of the vertical wall as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 8. Further, the inclined horizontal flange forms a V with the vertical face for positioning the protrusions of the hanger stem. The horizontal slot portion 23 as shown in FIG. 3 is sufficiently long so that the stem can pivot rearwardly a sufficient distance so that the hanger as shown in FIG. I may touch the bottom shelf 11. During this pivoting, the stem does not touch the rear edge of the slot. By enabling the stem to pivot upwardly to this position without touching the rear of the slot, the stem, which is usually of plastic, will not be cut by repeated contact with the rear edge of the slot. This adds considerably to the service of such hangers.

It is pointed out that in the applications of the garment hanger bar as disclosed herein the bar is stationary. In these stationary applications it is desired that the horizontal flange be inclined upwardly at an angle. However, where the hanger openings are embodied in a pivotal suspension device. the horizontal flange may be at right angles to the vertical flange since the entire device will pivot when the hanger is tilted rearwardly.

While the described embodiment of the garment hanger bar comprises an angle member, it is pointed out that the present invention is not limited to such a shape for the hanger bar. The hanger bar described above which comprises a vertical wall and horizontal flange may have a further vertical wall 50 upstanding from the free end of the horizontal flange as shown in FIG. 10. The resulting structure is substantially U-shaped in cross section. The slot may extend across the horizontal flange and up into the second vertical wall so that the hanger stems may be inserted into the hanger bar from either side of the bar. The width of the horizontal flange may only be slightly grater than the width of the key hanger stem referred to above.

In addition, the hanger bar may have a V-shaped cross section with the apex being direction downwardly and a continuous slot being formed in both the intersecting faces of the V. In this modification, also, the hanger stern could be inserted into the bar from either face thereof. As described above, the vertical slots in both the U and V-shaped modifications would be provided with corresponding enlarged openings to accommodate the protrusions on the flat faces of the key stem.

Thus it can be seen that the present invention provides a hanger bar which will accommodate only a specialized form of a clothes hanger stern. Since such hanger stems could not be supported on the conventional hanger bars employed for supporting hook stem hangers, such specialized forms of hangers would not be removed from their initial locations. In addition, the hanger bar according to the present invention may be modified so as to accommodate the conventional hook stem hanger is so desired. The hanger bar may be further modified into an accessory for attachment to a conventional hanger bar to either increase or decrease the capacity of the hanger bar or to adapt the hanger bar to receive other forms of hanger stem. The hanger bar according to the present invention is simple in construction yet effective in that it prevents the use of any types of hanger stems except the particular flat stem with a protrusion on a face thereof.

It will be understood that the present invention is susceptible to modification in order to adapt it to different usages and conditions.

I claim:

1. A garment hanger bar comprising a substantially horizontally disposed member having a planar vertical wall with front and rear faces and a planar horizontal flange extending rearwardly from the lower portion thereof, there being a slot in said vertical wall and horizontal flange having vertical and horizontal portions, the upper end of said vertical slot portion terminating short of the upper edge of the vertical wall, there being an enlargement in said vertical slot portion to define an enlarged opening therein, and means on said vertical wall surrounding the vertical slot portion for guiding the insertion of a garment hanger stern into said enlarged opening and slot from the front face of the vertical wall.

2. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said enlarged opening being at the upper end of said vertical slot por- On.

3. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 2 with said enlarged opening being triangularly shaped and pointed downwardly with its base at the vertical slot portion upper end.

4. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim I with there being a plurality of openings intermediate the upper and lower ends of the vertical slot portion.

5. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said opening extending on both sides of said slot and both portions of the opening being opposed from each other.

6. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said opening being on one side only of said vertical slot portion.

7. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 6 with there being a plurality of said openings with the openings on opposite sides of said vertical slot portion being at different distances from said horizontal flange.

8. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said guiding means comprising an indentation in the front face of said vertical wall inclined inwardly toward said slot and openmg.

9. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said guiding means comprising a plurality of surfaces in the front face of said vertical wall inclined inwardly toward said slot and opening.

10. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising a second vertical wall upstanding from the free edge of said horizontal flange, said slot extending across said horizontal flange up into said second vertical wall and terminating short of the upper end thereof.

11. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said horizontal flange being connected to said vertical wall at an angle so that said horizontally disposed member has a V- shaped section.

12. A garment hanger bar claimed in claim 11 with said horizontal flange being connected to the vertical wall at an angle of 25 37 V2 with the horizontal.

13. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 11 with the length of the horizontal slot portion being sufficient to permit upward tilting of hanger sup por ted the rein. 

1. A garment hanger bar comprising a substantially horizontally disposed member having a planar vertical wall with front and rear faces and a planar horizontal flange extending rearwardly from the lower portion thereof, there being a slot in said vertical wall and horizontal flange having vertical and horizontal portions, the upper end of said vertical slot portion terminating short of the upper edge of the vertical wall, there being an enlargement in said vertical slOt portion to define an enlarged opening therein, and means on said vertical wall surrounding the vertical slot portion for guiding the insertion of a garment hanger stem into said enlarged opening and slot from the front face of the vertical wall.
 2. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said enlarged opening being at the upper end of said vertical slot portion.
 3. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 2 with said enlarged opening being triangularly shaped and pointed downwardly with its base at the vertical slot portion upper end.
 4. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with there being a plurality of openings intermediate the upper and lower ends of the vertical slot portion.
 5. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said opening extending on both sides of said slot and both portions of the opening being opposed from each other.
 6. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said opening being on one side only of said vertical slot portion.
 7. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 6 with there being a plurality of said openings with the openings on opposite sides of said vertical slot portion being at different distances from said horizontal flange.
 8. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said guiding means comprising an indentation in the front face of said vertical wall inclined inwardly toward said slot and opening.
 9. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said guiding means comprising a plurality of surfaces in the front face of said vertical wall inclined inwardly toward said slot and opening.
 10. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising a second vertical wall upstanding from the free edge of said horizontal flange, said slot extending across said horizontal flange up into said second vertical wall and terminating short of the upper end thereof.
 11. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 1 with said horizontal flange being connected to said vertical wall at an angle so that said horizontally disposed member has a V-shaped section.
 12. A garment hanger bar claimed in claim 11 with said horizontal flange being connected to the vertical wall at an angle of 25 *- 37 1/2 * with the horizontal.
 13. A garment hanger bar as claimed in claim 11 with the length of the horizontal slot portion being sufficient to permit upward tilting of hanger supported therein. 